Recent content by Diane_

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    Need help on King James version of Bible

    Honey, I'm not saying no one knows what any of the words mean. I'm saying no one knows what some - i.e. a few - of them mean. Four thousand years is an awfully long time. Languages do change.
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    Need help on King James version of Bible

    That's an outstanding question. I know that there are parts of the Old Testament where honest translators end up putting question marks beside some of the words because no one really knows what the old Hebrew words meant. The description of the priests robes in (IIRC) Leviticus are the main...
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    Firefly and Science: Exploring the Thin Line Between Nerds and Non-Nerds

    I wouldn't call it "cowboys in space". It seems to take off from the American Civil War. The time period is right, but the feel is different.
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    Solving Oscillation Problem: Find Time for Pendulum with 30m Cable

    Well, the reasoning and the equation look fine, but I'm getting a different answer. You might check the calculation again.
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    Firefly and Science: Exploring the Thin Line Between Nerds and Non-Nerds

    That doesn't make you a nerd. Why, my boyfriend and I have a Firefly marathon planned for tomorrow afternoon, and we're both... Uhh. Never mind.
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    Equilibrium Help: Solving Free Body Diagrams

    Well, the only difference is that 45 degree angle. If it weren't for that, you'd have the force of the string one way, the force of friction the other, the normal force up and weight down. As the problem stands, you still have those forces except that the force of the string needs to be broken...
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    Equilibrium Help: Solving Free Body Diagrams

    Sigh. The preformatted text tag doesn't work. I think I knew that. The string is pulling the block both to the side and upwards at a 45 degree angle. This will give you not only a force tending to make the block slide but one pulling it upward from the table, reducing the normal force...
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    Calculate the work done to locate a 150kg satellite

    It depends on what the question means, exactly. To loft the satellite, you'd need to do work against gravity. This is what you're calculating. You'd need to use the height above the Earth's surface for the distance, since this is the distance through which you're lifting it. However, to...
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    Science Humor: A Wide Selection

    OK - and since I'm a mathematician and need to get a little back: A mathematician, a physicist and an engineer are presented with the proposition that all odd numbers are prime and asked to verify or refute it. The mathematician starts: Let's see, one is prime, three is prime, five is...
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    Science Humor: A Wide Selection

    A group of engineering students and a group of mathematics students were on the same train heading towards a conference. Each of the mathematicians had his own ticket, while the engineers had just one for all of them. The mathematicians, of course, made fun of the stupid engineers, most of...
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    Vector Proofs: A Quadrilateral thing

    One way to do this is to show that you have a pair of congruent triangles. (There are actually several pair, but you only need one.) Remember the definition of a parallelogram - that'll give you the angles. There's one more property of parallelograms that will give you the sides that you need.
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    A terrifying factoid for our older members

    Isn't there a law prohibiting mentioning those two things in a sentence with her as the subject?
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    Calculate the weight of the satellite on the surface of the Earth

    The distance in Newton's Law of Gravitation is from the center of mass of the two objects involved. In this case, it'll be essentially from the center of the Earth, not from the surface.
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    Build a Coin-Throwing Catapult in 2 Weeks

    Doesn't that rather depend on the size of the counterweight, the weight of the arm, and the moment arms involved?
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    Calculating Resultant Velocity: Plane Encounter with Wind

    I ended up with 76 degrees south of east, but that may be because I used the full length calculated instead of just the 115. Remember - there is a difference between "south of east" and "east of south". "South of east" is measured clockwise from the positive x-axis. "East of south" would be...
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